


Strong

by TheMightyFlynn



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 05:59:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15701262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMightyFlynn/pseuds/TheMightyFlynn
Summary: Astoria Greengrass was not on trial, but knew she had to be strong. For him, if nothing else.





	Strong

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [hphet](http://hphet.livejournal.com) mini fest.  
> I don't often write pure drama, so this may be a little strange. Hope you all like it anyway! :)

The war trials took a lot out of everyone who attended them. Family, friends, but especially the people on trial. It had been six months since Astoria Greengrass had seen her fiancée. Pale and drawn, he resembled a rabbit surrounded by a pack of hunting dogs. She’d heard the whispers, of course.

_Dangerous. Death Eater. Murderer._

Sitting at the back of the Wizengamot chamber, taking notes on the trial, she failed to see it. Sure, Draco had taken the Dark Mark, but so had a lot of people in the past few years. That meant little these days. People had been coerced and threatened. She did not know his full story – he had refused to speak of it even to her – but neither did anyone else here. Settling back into her seat, her quill poised over her parchment, she tried to force herself to breathe properly.

What she discovered was nothing short of astonishing. Of course, everyone knew the line the Malfoy family had been sticking to since the end of the war two years previously: _we were just protecting each other._ They had been presenting as a close-knit family who had been dragged into things beyond their control. Lucius could not pull out of the course he had set the family on when he was but a teenager without endangering his wife and son. Narcissa had no influence with Voldemort beyond the fact that Lucius loved her and wanted to protect her. Draco had taken the Mark in order to prevent his mother from being harmed while his father was in Azkaban.

This was all just the public side of things. That day, Astoria was able to get a much closer look into the life of the one person in the world who had come to mean so much to her.

“What, precisely, were Voldemort’s words to you, Mr. Malfoy, the night you took the Mark? Please try to recall them exactly.”

Astoria watched, her quill clenched between her fingers, as Draco swallowed. Glancing nervously around the room, his eyes didn’t seem to know where to settle.

“He, ah…” Draco’s voice cracked. His eyes began to scan the room again, clearly searching for something. When Astoria shifted her position, he locked onto her. Surprise filtered across his face, but the it hardened. “He told me what a privilege it was to earn the Mark at such a young age. Said that few others had _earned_ it.”

The second he stopped speaking, he looked away. A tingle went straight down Astoria’s spine. She frowned, rolling her shoulders.

“What do you mean when you say ‘earned it’, Mr. Malfoy?” The woman questioning Draco stepped up to the platform he was seated on. She was tall, obscuring Astoria’s view for a few seconds until she passed by. “Please remember that you are being recorded.”

Draco’s eyes moved again. This time they flew straight to the stumpy-looking man seated on a small platform to the right of the Chief Warlock. Astoria watched with fascination as Draco’s eyes widened. A little more colour drained from his face, if that was possible, before he began to glance around the chamber again.

“Mr. Malfoy?”

“I…” Shifting her position again caused Draco’s eyes to re-lock on Astoria. “I was put through an initiation. It was…”

He stopped, his throat working convulsively. Astoria kept her eyes on him even when he glanced away.

“Yes, Mr. Malfoy?”

“Torture.”

The word was so quiet that Astoria was unsure she had heard him correctly. She clenched her hands and strained her ears, leaning forward in her seat.

“Speak up, Mr. Malfoy.”

This time, Draco didn’t bother glancing around the chamber before he met her eyes. “Torture.”

“He tortured you?”

“No. Nothing so easy.” He paused to take a few deep breaths. No one in the chamber moved, with the exception of the woman standing just to his left. Still, Draco’s eyes never left Astoria’s. “He chose a family of Mud – a Muggle-born. She’d been Sorted into the year below me, straight out of a family of librarians from Worcester. Two parents, the student, and two younger siblings. It was a test of your will. He needed to know just how much you could stand before breaking.”

When he paused again, the room was silent. A strange sensation ran through Astoria as she watched him. She knew that there was a reason Draco had not discussed the war with her. Digging her nails into the palms of her hands, she bit down on her bottom lip.

“Did you break, Mr. Malfoy?”

Astoria held her breath. She knew what the answer had to be; what it could only be. Still, when Draco responded, she could feel something shatter inside her.

“No.”

His voice was now strong; determined. He kept his eyes locked with Astoria’s, but it was clear that he was speaking to the woman.

“It was not just my own life that was at stake. My father was in Azkaban, and I could not leave my mother on her own, unprotected. He was going to kill them, and whatever I put that family through under his orders would be nothing compared to what my mother would suffer if I failed.”

A murmur went up around the room the second Draco fell silent again. Astoria found herself held in place by a force she could not understand. This was a horrible tale. No, not a tale but a true story of things a young man had done to real, actual people. She could not turn away, however. She had to be strong for him, even if he had not known that she would be in attendance.

“Silence. _Silence_!”

Astoria jumped. The Chief Warlock stood in his place at the head of the chamber.

“You may all have a fifteen-minute recess to clear your heads. I expect that when we return, you will all have much better control over yourselves.”

It was not until the guard stepped up to the platform and took Draco back into custody that Astoria broke out of the trance that his gaze had held her under. Glancing down, she took in the crushed quill and crumpled parchment in her hands. Beneath the bits of feather on her palms were little half-moon shaped marks where her nails had dug in. Without even thinking her actions through, she stood and made her way swiftly down through the chamber. When she reached the entrance to the holding cells, she was forced to stop her headlong rush to get to him.

“Miss Greengrass.”

“Please, I have to see him.”

The guard stood before the door, his arms crossed over his chest. “You know I can’t do that.”

“ _Please_. I would never do anything to endanger anyone here.”

When he still stood firm, she sighed. Reaching into the holster on her arm, she pulled out her wand and held it out to him. His eyebrows rose into his hairline.

“Believe me, I won’t be capable of doing anything dangerous without it.”

Shaking his head, he accepted her wand and stood aside. “Two minutes, Miss. No longer.”

Grinning, she raced inside. Draco sat in the one cell that was open, his head in his hands. Stepping into the room, Astoria went to her knees before him.

“Draco?”

“You should not have come.”

“You know no one could keep me away.”

He sighed before raising his head. His eyes were even darker up close. Sunken and wary, they still flicked all over the room before coming to rest on her. Taking a slightly shaky breath, Astoria reached up to brush a strand of hair from his forehead.

“I don’t have long, so you must listen to me.” He nodded, his eyes now firmly locked on hers again. “We _will_ get through this. You will be released and we will make the life together we have spoken of. When you falter up there, just find me in the crowd.”

“Tori…”

“No, Draco. This is how it is; how it must be. You will tell them the truth and they will find you innocent, I am sure of it. All you have to do is stay strong up there; stay true to the man I know you are.”

His eyes closed as he leant forward to touch their foreheads together. “I love you, you know.”

“I know.”

The guard stepped into the room and cleared his throat. It was too soon, but Astoria knew she could not argue. Stealing a quick kiss from Draco, she stood. This would not be easy, she knew. They _would_ survive it, however. She was determined about that.


End file.
